Hepatocellular carcinoma treatment with transarterial radioembolization (TARE): a retrospective single-centre study.

Abstract

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common cause of primary liver cancer, currently ranked as one of the most common cancers worldwide and a leading cause of cancer death due to its often late diagnosis, which leads to an advanced-stage HCC and limits curative treatment options. Transarterial radioembolization (TARE) is a locoregional treatment that can be used to treat HCC across different Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) stages. The aim of the study was to assess treatment response rate and median overall survival and to evaluate prognostic factors of overall survival and adverse events of TARE. Methods: We performed a single-centre cohort retrospective study with patients diagnosed with HCC and treated with TARE from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2022 at Unidade Local de Saúde de São João, Porto, Portugal. To assess overall survival, the Kaplan-Meier method was used, and to evaluate its prognostic factors, differences between groups were assessed using the log-rank test. Results: This study included 53 patients. Treatment response rate was disease progression in 41.5% of cases, stable disease in 20.7% of cases, partial response in 34.0% of cases and complete response in 3.8%. The median overall survival time was 14.00 months (95% CI: 1.85-26.15). Portal vein thrombosis and previous hepatic decompensation were associated with poor overall survival. Adverse events were reported in 18.8% of patients, most commonly associated with post-embolization syndrome. Conclusion: TARE has shown to be effective as a tool for downstaging and preventing tumour progression.